OK, Lance Armstrong is yesterday’s news. Armstrong, who late last week appeared on a two-part confessional on the O network, located on the TV dial somewhere near the military history channel and the jewelry channel, disappeared behind headlines screaming the latest on Notre Dame’s love-lost linebacker, Manti Te’o (pronounced “idiot”).

Sometime in November, when the fall rains had set in, when storms lined up five deep off the Pacific Ocean waiting to invade Western Oregon, when clouds hung low enough to reach out and touch, when fields became a patchwork quilt of puddles, the boys in the neighborhood would gather for Sunday afternoon football.

October 2012 was the wettest on record in La Grande. Hurricane Sandy carved out a new Atlantic Ocean beachfront somewhere in Pennsylvania Amish country. Social Security is threatened. And the Oregon Ducks football team could win all 12 of its games 100-0 and still not be in the BCS championship.